High Frequency Trading (HFT environments) and the Juniper EX4500-40F-VC1-BF

For clients in Layer 2/Layer3 ultra low-latency 10gig environments where milliseconds make or break a trade, we’ve had success providing the Juniper EX4500 series switches. The 40 by 10GbE SFP/SFP+ port based EX4500 is stackable though a 128 Gbps backplane, which is designated by the VC1 part number. The EX4500 series also has room for two more 4 port 10gig modules that can be used to interconnect the switches using link aggregation (LAG) of up to eight SFP+ 10GbE line-rate links, allowing you to manage the group as a single device residing in two different physical locations.

One might ask, “If there’s a new EX4550 on the block, why should I go for a 4500?” According to one of our data center clients who runs both switches, the EX4500 doesn’t have any problems when dealing with port shaping and frame size commands. The EX4550, at present, can tend to struggle when using these features. This means adding a refurbished EX4500 to your cabinet could be a smarter choice than looking towards the newer, slimmer EX4550 and could save critical budget for other applications.

If you have any questions regarding the EX4500 or are looking for a specific configuration, feel free to contact me directly.

Daniel Lobanovsky
415 483 1189
Daniel@TerabitSystems.com